Happy Birthday
by RandomGnome
Summary: A flufftastic piece, more or less set in my Getting to the Altar universe. Robin gives Alice a very special birthday gift.


**_Disclaimer_**: I do not own Once Upon a Time or any of the characters. I'm new to this particular fandom – CuriousArcher, MadArcher, whatever you want to call it. I mean, how hard was it to not love Robin and Alice? They're totally adorable! Thanks, OUaT! Any and all mistakes are mine.

**Birthday Surprise**

By Random Gnome

**Good morning, my beautiful wife! Happy birthday! I love you! I'll talk to you later.**

Alice Mills-Jones stared at the screen of her phone, a tiny smile on her face. She had woken up to the message from her wife, Robin, who was away at a training conference for work. Robin hadn't wanted to go, but she'd had no choice. It was either go to the training or lose the job she'd worked her ass off to get. It wasn't her fault that the conference had fallen during the same week as Alice's birthday - the first one they had celebrated since getting married earlier that summer.

It wasn't Robin's fault that, for the first time in years, Alice had spent her birthday alone. Well, not _truly_ alone, because, like it or not, she had family now. Not only did she have her dear Papa, but she had gained a mother (in-law), a step-father (in-law), a baby brother (in-law), an Aunt (who just happened to be the Queen), and several cousins. Not only that, but there was the man who looked and sounded exactly like her father, but who was not him, his wife, Emma, and their little girl, Hope. Nobody had quite figured out how Alice and Hope were related, but that didn't matter since Emma was Robin's un-faerie godmother. There was also, to her intense pleasure, more friends than she quite knew what to do with.

Each and every one her new family had stopped by today to wish her a happy birthday and to give her a gift - even little Hope and baby Oliver. Alice liked each and every one of her presents from the adorable scribble on a piece of white paper from Hope, to the exquisitely crafted sapphire pendant from her father. Robin's mother and step-father had given her a collection of books with stories about something this realm called 'steampunk'. Since they looked interesting, Alice had decided to wait until her wife was home, so they could read them out loud to each other.

This would be the first birthday in nearly a decade, however, without Robin to celebrate with. Alice tried not to dwell on that as she was treated to breakfast by her papa, spent time with her parents-in-law and their son who was barely four months old. She'd had lunch in Queen Regina's palace, with the Queen, of course. After returning to the apartment she and Robin lived in, a steady stream of people had shown up to wish her a happy birthday. For dinner, a special delivery had arrived in the form of her favourite meal from _Granny's Diner_. It was accompanied by a birthday card that had been signed by Granny herself. Alice ate, though she didn't have much appetite.

She'd tried, unsuccessfully, to get in touch with Robin throughout the day, in the small quiet times between guests. All she really wanted - needed - was to hear her wife's voice. She knew that Robin wasn't allowed to have her phone with her during the training, or at least she couldn't have it turned on. Still, the training time had ended hours ago, and she hadn't heard so much as a ping from her phone in return.

It was getting late and Alice was tired. Today had been a good day, but it had been draining. Deciding that it was time to go to bed, Alice changed into her pyjamas - an old t-shirt that belonged to her wife, and a pair of bright blue flannel pants covered in hearts and bows and arrows. They were supposed to be for Valentine's Day, but when she'd seen them they reminded her of Robin, her archer and True Love.

Just as she was brushing out her curly golden mane, which had grown out quite a bit since she and Robin had gotten married, her phone rang. Alice dropped the brush on the floor and rushed to answer the call.

"_Hey there, Birthday Tower Girl_." Came the voice she'd been craving all day. Robin sounded tired, but happy. "_Sorry this is so late. I got invited out by some of the guys and time sort of got away from me._"

"That's okay," Alice hurried to assure her wife. Actually, she felt a little miffed that Robin had nearly missed talking to her, _on her birthday_, to go out drinking with people she barely knew. "I'm just happy to hear your voice."

"_No, it's not okay. I swear, I didn't forget about your birthday, Alice. I just lost track of time. I'm sorry that I couldn't be there today._"

Any anger Alice had been feeling melted away. "S'not your fault."

"_Maybe not, but I _miss _you._" Robin's voice had softened and grown husky. "_I hate not being there for your birthday_."

Tears pricked Alice's eyes. "I miss you, too, love. So much. If you don't count the curse, this is the longest I've been away from you in a long time."

"_Yeah, I know. I'm sorry that training wasn't over today. I just want to tuck up in bed with you._"

"Me, too." Alice sniffed. "My birthday isn't the same without my Nobin."

Robin chuckled softly at that. "_I'm there with you in spirit, sweet girl._"

"I know." Alice looked at the rings on her left-hand ring finger. First came the beautiful diamond ring that Robin had given her almost as soon as they had returned to this realm. She'd been waiting for the right time to ask Alice to marry her when they were back in the Enchanted Forest but had run out of time when they had been cursed. Her wedding ring was a simple band of titanium, engraved on the inside with _**True Love**_. "I just really wish you were here."

"_I lo - Oh, crap. Hang on, sweetheart, my trainer is calling me._" The phone went silent and then, it beeped and turned off.

Alice glared at it, all the while kicking herself for not charging it during the day or at least plugging it in during her call. Grumbling at herself, she found the charging cable next to her night stand and plugged in the device.

She was so busy being angry at the phone for turning off that she wasn't paying any attention to her surroundings, holding it in her hand and waiting for it to show a bit of charge so she could turn it back on. Which is why she nearly had a heart attack when a familiar voice asked, "Did someone say something about wishes?"

Nearly dropping her phone, Alice jumped to her feet and spun around, not quite able to believe. Standing in the doorway, holding a cupcake with a single flickering candle in the top, was her wife. A wide smile split her face and an emotion even more powerful than joy welled up inside of her and spilled out of her eyes.

"You're here! You came!"

"Of course, I came. I couldn't let you celebrate today all by yourself, could I?" Robin took several steps into the room and held the cupcake, which was covered in a neon green icing, out before her with a lopsided smile.

"But… your training…"

Robin's grin widened. "I talked to the trainer this morning and she let me take the tests we usually have tomorrow, during lunch. I passed, by the way, with flying colours."

"I would never assume less," Alice wiped at her eyes and sniffled. "You're really here? This isn't just, like WishRobin, or something?" Sometimes, when Alice wanted something badly enough, her magic could cause it to happen.

The archer grinned and held out a hand. "It's me. I promise. Now, come here and blow out your candle before it drips wax into this frosting that I've been assured is the best to be had."

Alice came forward, and took her wife's hand, their fingers locking together the way they always had. Robin held up the sputtering candle. "Make a wish."

"I don't need to. I already got my wish." Alice told her, her heart overflowing with the love she had for the woman in front of her. She leaned forward and blew out the candle, then she took the cupcake from Robin and set it gently down on their dresser, before stepping in and sliding her arms around her wife's neck. It felt almost sinfully good when Robin's arms wrapped around her waist to pull her close, and their lips met.

They broke apart a few moments later, leaning their foreheads together and smiling. Robin nuzzled Alice's nose with her own before she said, "Happy birthday, Tower Girl."

"It is, now. I love you, Nobin. With everything that I am."

"Do you want your present?" Robin asked with a smirk. She pretended to hate the nickname, 'Nobin', but it actually made her stomach flip-flop whenever Alice said it. It was better than any other term of endearment, because only they knew its importance, the same way only Robin could get away with calling Alice 'Tower Girl'.

"This isn't it?" The blonde asked, coyly, pressing closer to her wife.

Robin's smirk deepened. "Well, this _is_ part of it. But, no, I have something even better than," she glanced over at their bed, "that."

Wondering what could possibly be better than unwrapping her wife and taking her to bed, Alice raised an eyebrow, but stepped away from Robin. "I like a little mystery. Where is this present?"

Robin leaned in and pressed another, softer kiss to Alice's mouth. "Can I change into something more comfortable or are you _dying_ to know?"

"Oh, I think I can survive for a few more minutes, at the very least."

"Good. I'll be right back, then."

The other woman left the room, then came back a few moments later with a little green rolling suitcase in tow. While she was in the bathroom, Alice gave in to part of her curiosity. She drew her finger through the bright green frosting on the cupcake and stuck it in her mouth. Surprise and delight lit up her face as she extracted her finger. It was sweet, without being overly so, and it seemed to melt on her tongue, the way cotton candy did. Picking up the little cake, she put a preservation spell on it and took it out to the kitchen. She didn't want the little cake to get hard or go stale overnight, not when that frosting was so good.

She was reclining at the head of the bed when Robin finally came out of the bathroom dressed in her favourite pair of black sateen sleep shorts and a grey t-shirt with a picture that was so faded, Alice couldn't tell what it had once been. Her dark blonde hair was out of its customary braid and had been brushed into shining waves to the middle of her back and framing her face. She looked just like she did any other night, but to Alice, it was the perfect end way to her special day. She smiled and patted the bed next to her.

Smiling like she had a secret, Robin sat on the edge of the mattress, then scooted until she and Alice were shoulder to shoulder. Alice sighed happily at the contact, having missed her wife's presence each night that she'd been gone.

"So… Where's my present?" Alice asked, trying to sound innocent, but her curiosity was now getting the better of her. "Or do I get to open you, now?"

Robin chuckled and took her wife's hand, bringing it up to her lips to bestow a kiss to her palm before laying it against her belly and covering it with her own hand. Then, she used her free hand to extract a semi-flat red box from her shorts pocket. Wrapped around the box and tied in a neat bow was a white ribbon with blue and pink stripes on it. Robin held it up and out to her, and Alice took it gently from her hands.

"Before you open it, there's something I want to tell you," the brunette stopped her, before Alice could tug at the ribbon. Since one hand was still capture by her wife's, she'd put the box between her legs to hold it in place.

"Oh? What's that?"

"Remember how I wasn't feeling well last week, and I went to the doctor?"

Alice looked up from the gift, a look of concern etched across her face. "Yeah? What about it?"

Robin grinned. "Oh nothing. It's just, the doctor called me today to tell me there's nothing wrong with me."

Alice rolled her eyes. "You're terrible! Don't scare me like that!"

Robin squeezed her hand, laughing lightly. "Sorry, I couldn't resist."

Shaking her head, Alice muttered under her breath about mean wives, but turned back to the box. With one hand, she pulled at the ribbon and it gave way easily, coming untied and falling away from the box. With care, Alice lifted the lid and looked inside.

For a moment, she couldn't figure out quite what she was seeing. It looked like some sort of white plastic stick, sitting comfortably on a white cotton pad. One end had what looked like a pink cap over something she didn't recognize. In the centre of the stick was a tiny window-like area with two vertical pink stripes in it. It took even longer for her eyes to find the writing next to the window. It was some sort of key… two stripes meant…

Alice let out a shriek of surprise and turned to her now grinning wife. "It worked?!" She cried.

Robin laughed. She reached under her shirt and pulled out the little talisman she wore on a plain leather cord. It was a blooming lotus flower, carved from hazelnut wood, each petal of the flower was engraved with a different symbol on the front. The symbols were, as far as Alice had been able to discover, 'fertility' symbols from many different cultures. On the back of the lotus, the circle with a cross attached at the bottom, commonly known to be the image meaning 'female' was entwined with another of the same sign, painted in a magical solution that contained their mixed blood.

After getting married, they had talked about having kids. They both wanted to have a family, though it was a little depressing knowing they'd have to get a donor.

"I don't care how attractive the donor is," Robin had overheard Alice telling her father one day, "It isn't the same. I want to be able to look at our child and see Robin's eyes and my smile or the other way around. Yes, Papa, I know, but it isn't _fair_."

Robin agreed. It wasn't fair. Science could do it, but it was expensive and had a lot of hoops to jump through. One day, she had been having lunch with Aunt Regina, explaining their plight, when a thought came to her. Magic.

"Aunt Regina could _magic_ help us have a baby?"

Her aunt looked at her a little sadly. "A long time ago, maybe, when magic was stronger and a witch's tie to it was through nature. Now… It's hard to say. I know that there used to be rituals, fertility rites, that kind of thing - though they were always for a man and a woman. Most fertility celebrations were all about the male and female aspect of nature coming together to create new life - usually in the springtime. I don't know if any of them would work, in your situation."

"But it's possible?"

"Well, anything's possible, my dear. Or what else is magic for?" Regina smiled broadly and winked at her.

Two months later, she and Alice had done a lot of research and thought that they might have come up with a way to make it happen. The key, it turned out, was Alice. She was the child of the child of The All Mother - a. k. a. Mother Nature. Alice was descended from the original fertility goddess. Her magic was even stronger than her mother's had been, because it was based in love, not hate.

She carved the wood with a blessed dagger. She made a potion/paint of their combined bloods. She also performed a ceremony on both of them, something that made their bodies receptive to a baby. In all, Alice had done everything that she could to try to make it possibly for either of them to get pregnant.

And it had worked!

Alice threw her arms around Robin once more, burying her face in her wife's neck and laughing/crying with happiness. The brunette held her close, letting the joy that she had had since finding out that morning, flow through her and seep out to permeate her whole body. She'd been keeping a lid on it, hadn't told anyone except her trainers, who had been happy for her. That had been the tipping point, the piece of info that had caused them to allow her to 'test out' of the training a day early.

When Alice finally calmed down, she pulled away just enough to fix Robin with a baleful stare. "When you said the doctor called this morning and nothing was 'wrong' - that was a hint, wasn't it?"

Laughing softly, Robin said, "Just a little tease. I couldn't help it."

Rolling her eyes, but smiling once more, Alice carefully lifted the t-shirt from Robin's belly. She leaned down and gently laid her cheek against the soft exposed flesh there and pressed her ear close. She was quiet for quite some time before saying, "Hello, little one. I'm your mama. I know you can't hear me, yet, but that's okay. Your mom and me, we are so happy that you're in there, and we can't wait to meet you." She turned her head and gave the skin a kiss. "I love you, very much."

Sitting up, she gazed at Robin with bright eyes and a soft expression. "I love you, too. We're going to have a baby." She said the last part with a tone of awe.

Robin nodded. "We are. _Our_ baby, just like we wanted."

"Our baby," Alice whispered, loving how it sounded. "_Ours_. Robin…?"

"Yeah?"

"I'd like to unwrap _you_ now."

Robin smirked. She wrapped her arms around the blonde and pulled her close. Leaning her head next to her wife's ear, she whispered, "Happy birthday, Alice."

_**Author's Note:**_ This was just a little something rattling around in my head. Cute and flufftastic. Cheers!


End file.
